GUWAHATI: India on Thursday deported seven Rohingya men to Myanmar, despite UN warnings that they faced persecution in a country where the army is accused of genocide against the Muslim minority.
The men, who had been in detention for immigration offenses since 2012, were handed over to Myanmar authorities at a border crossing in India’s northeast state of Manipur.
“Seven Myanmarese nationals have been deported today. They were handed over to the authorities of Myanmar at Moreh border post,” said senior Assam police officer Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta.
Photos showed the seven men seated in a bus bound for the border in the remote hilly state bordering Myanmar’s far northwest.
The UN had voiced concern that returning the men ignored the danger they faced in Myanmar, where for decades the Rohingya have been targeted in violent pogroms by security forces.
A UN special rapporteur had warned India risked breaking international laws on refoulement — the return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they could be harmed.
Legal efforts to stymie their deportation failed when India’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a petition on their behalf and upheld their status as illegal immigrants.
“Even the country of their origin has accepted them as its citizens,” a three-judge bench said.
The Rohingya are despised by many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which refuses to recognize them as citizens and falsely labels them “Bengali” illegal immigrants.
They were concentrated in Rakhine state, the epicenter of a Myanmar army offensive that over the past year has driven 700,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh.
Myanmar’s army has denied nearly all wrongdoing, insisting its campaign was justified to root out Rohingya insurgents.
But a UN fact-finding mission said there was enough evidence to merit prosecution of several top Myanmar military commanders for crimes against humanity and genocide against Rohingya civilians.
India’s decision “to deport seven Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar is cruel and could put lives at risk of persecution including torture and potential death,” said John Quinley III, a human rights specialist with Fortify Rights, a non-profit organization.
New Delhi considers the Rohingya a security threat, pointing to intelligence which it says links the minority group to extremist organizations.
The government had ordered last year that all Rohingya inside India — New Delhi puts the figure at 40,000 — be deported.
The Supreme Court is considering a petition challenging the order as unconstitutional.
The UN says there are 16,000 registered Rohingya in India.
India deports seven Rohingya to Myanmar despite UN protest
India deports seven Rohingya to Myanmar despite UN protest
- The UN had voiced concern that returning the men ignored the danger they faced in Myanmar
Kyrgyzstan parliament speaker resigns after spy chief sacking
- Japarov is seeking re-election next year in a country that was once a regional leader in terms of openness
BISHKEK: Kyrgyzstan’s parliament speaker said Thursday he would step down, two days after President Sadyr Japarov dismissed the Central Asian country’s powerful secret service chief and arrested political figures who called for early elections.
In a surprise move, Japarov had sacked his one-time close ally — spy chief Kamchybek Tashiev — in a decision Bishkek said was meant to “prevent division in society.”
Japarov is seeking re-election next year in a country that was once a regional leader in terms of openness, though marked by political volatility.
Rights groups have accused him of authoritarian tendencies, as he seeks to assert his control and cast himself as a bringer of stability.
Speaker Nurlanbek Turgunbek uulu — close to the sacked security boss — told MPs he would step down, insisting that he was not resigning under pressure.
“Reforms initiated by the president must be carried out. Political stability is indispensable,” he said.
Kyrgyzstan has in recent years been de-facto governed by the Japarov-Tashiev tandem.
Both came to power in the wake of the 2020 revolution — the third since Bishkek gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Several NGOs have in recent months denounced the deterioration of freedom of expression in Kyrgyzstan.
Japarov had unexpectedly sacked Tashiev and three of his deputies on Tuesday, also weakening the powers of the secret services.
Japarov rarely speaks publicly. His spokesman had said the decision was taken “in the interests of the state, with the aim of preventing divisions within society, including between government structures, and to strengthen unity.”
Tashiev was in Germany for health treatment when the sacking was announced and had said it was a “total surprise” to him.
The decision came the day after the publication of an open letter from 75 political figures and ex-officials calling to bring forward presidential elections — scheduled for January 2027.
Five of those who signed the letter — which criticized the economic situation in the country — were arrested Wednesday on charges of organizing mass riots.
